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Special needs students prepare Thanksgiving dinner for family, friends

By Lynn Hotaling
life skills class

Posing with one of their roasted turkeys are some of the cooks from the life skills classes at Cullowhee Valley School: Adam Zoller (front) and, from left, Brooke Parris, Tiffany Franks, Aaron Biddix, Pierson Pourier, Corey Hambrick, Chris Shular and Justin Smith.

It took some special students to prepare the feast served last Thursday (Nov. 16) by the life skills classes at Cullowhee Valley School.

Members of the two classes, which are taught by Dona West and Cindy Mathews and include students from throughout Jackson County, cooked and served dinner to their families and friends.

"This is the 20th year my classes have made Thanksgiving dinner for their families and invited guests," West said. "It's a chance for us to give something back to all the people who support us all through the year."

Mathews, who has been helping with the dinners for almost 10 years, said the event has become a tradition for many around the school.

"People start asking us when it's going to be a month ahead of time," she said.

Student Justin Stiles and teacher assistant Alana Fisher

Student Justin Stiles and teacher assistant Alana Fisher worked Wednesday to chop the vegetables needed to prepare the life skills classes' annual Thanksgiving feast for their families and friends.

For this year's dinner, the classes cooked two turkeys, two hams and enough dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and green beans to serve 70 people. The students made pumpkin pies as well, but asked their families to provide the rest of the desserts, West said.

Since the event has turned into such a huge undertaking, the menu doesn't vary much from year to year, West said, and the students do most of the cooking the day before the dinner.

"We have a schedule and we stick to it," she said.

In addition to the students' parents, grandparents and siblings, the classes invite the school's special area teachers, administrators and custodians.

Back to Archive: 11/23/00.